Sunlight glaring through the windshield. Your favorite songs blasting through the speakers. Candy bar wrappers piled next to a warm drink in the cheap plastic cupholder. Your companion riding in the passenger seat, snapping pictures of landmarks as you settle into the hypnotic rhythm of the road. But be careful: this fun road trip could get dangerous as you drive through Death Valley.

Om nom nom… Numbsters are hungry!

When hungry Numbsters form a line, arrange them well and you’ll be fine. But when they all begin to munch, avoid the Mouth or you’ll be lunch!

Numbsters is a solo game that can be played in your hand or on a table. Each of the hungry Numbsters features a number and special ability. Starting with a stack of 6 random Numbsters (plus the Mouth card) you’ll need to eat, move, and manipulate your way to victory. If you can get down to just one Numbster and the Mouth remaining in your hand, you win!

Crows, hawks, eagles and owls wheel and whirl above the forest. The constant motion highlights the shifting balance of power that determines who really rules these skies.

Forest Sky is an 18-card hand management game where 2-4 players compete for the best 6-card scoring combination. Each card features a unique scoring rule, with players using both the 3 cards in their hand (“the sky”) and one of the shared card pools in play (“the “forest”) for final scoring. As players draw cards, they’ll fill the forests and shape the skies in their favor to win the game.

Contained in Casual Game Insider Magazine CGI#45(2023).

Evil had beset the village, and we were their last hope. We could not ignore our duty, so we set out on one last quest. We fell one by one, until I was the last survivor. Holding steadfast, I swung my axe one last time. As I crashed to the ground, I knew I had found, at last, peace.

Ragemore is an 18 card solo game where you will complete quests, while managing your hand and resources as you delve though the dark, fighting demons, all in a span of 10-15 minutes.

Each card is two sided; a demon and a hero. In the beginning of the game, the player will set up 2 piles of demon-sided quests and a party of 3 hero-sided cards. Then an immediate threat is revealed from the draw deck as the current demon card that may or may not be dealt with. If it is not killed, the demon card will go to one of the quests piles and an event written on that card will take effect. If it is killed, the demon card is flipped to the hero side and becomes one of the party. The player can also ignore the immediate demon threat and goes on a quest to obtain the win condition, or parlay with some of the demons to turn them into heroes but with the cost of the hero's morality: the hero is flipped to the demon side and joins the draw deck of demons.

The game is won when the hero gains the required number of quest card by using a combination of four symbols drawn on each cards. The game is lost when the graveyard has 3 deaths or when a quest pile has 4 demons or the party has no more heroes or the draw deck of demons is empty before the number of quest cards is fulfilled or if the quest piles are empty before the number of quest cards is fulfilled. 1 winning condition and 5 losing conditions.


Released in the May 2020 Board Game of the Month Club $20+ package.

On this forgotten island in a tiny corner of the ocean the animals are hungry! Your goal is to influence the wildlife - and arrange their meals - so there is only one animal left!

In this game, you will take as many turns as possible with a goal of only having one land animal card left on the table after starting with a grid of 16. On each turn, you must move one animal to eat another smaller, adjacent animal. If you cannot move an animal to eat another, the game ends.

—description from the publisher

What is the mark of a True champion? Legendary heroes clash across the Neververse to find out.

Battlecrest is a card-based tactical skirmish game for 2 players (1-4 with expansions). With perfect information, players must truly outwit their opponent to win.

Characters are composed of 6-card sets featuring a hero card, a health tracker, and action cards. Occasionally a minion or item will replace an action card.

The map is built of 6 cards as well, with the cards randomly placed in a set pattern.

Players take turns maneuvering their characters around the dynamic, and often dangerous map while unleashing powerful attacks. As action cards are used they open up new possibilities and empower the character’s battlecrests. Build up to decisive strikes or refocus to get powers back. Every character has a unique set of actions and preferred tactics, so no two battles play the same.


Shots ring out in the overgrown forest. A rugged pirate, festooned with weapons of war, stomps into view. He scans the nearby treeline with practiced rigor. In the gnarled canopy above, a celestial goddess calls for an ancestral blessing against this implacable foe. With a divine roar she drops to the ground below, swinging her ornate staff with the strength of a thousand lifetimes at her waiting target…

The Fellwoods Base Game includes two heroes, Akhena and Mutiny (and his minion, RIG), and the Fellwoods map. All in just 18 cards, packed in our little wallets. No additional components are needed to play.

The Fellwoods is a large, enchanted forest covering a remote, mostly unknow planet. Enormous, hulking trees, dense moss and vines, and shrouds of mist lock the secrets of the forest within. Wild Magic is very much alive here, protected by guardians and spirits.


Fellwoods Map Set: 6 Landmark cards


Akhena is cosmic energy personified. A font of ancient knowledge provides her with a flexibility that mere mortals lack. In battle she draws guidance from powerful ancestor spirits, giving her both durability and strength in equal measure. To defeat her is to defeat mortality itself, for what could be more deadly than a living goddess?


Akhena Hero set: 1 Hero, 1 Health, 4 Action cards.
Akhena AI Sheet: for solo play, requires Imperator expansion.


This rugged raider has seen better days, but that won't stop him. He's got a head full of schemes and an array of ill-gotten loot to keep him going. Wily and clever, Mutiny knows better than to pick a fair fight. The best battles are the ones that end in a single shot from afar with his clockwork RIG helping to pin the target down. Less fuss that way.


Mutiny Hero set: 1 Hero, 1 Health, 1 Minion, 3 Action cards.
Mutiny AI Sheet: for solo play, requires Imperator expansion.

ROOM 25 DUEL reprend l’univers du jeu télévisé futuriste familier des joueurs de ROOM 25. Il retrace l’épreuve de sélection des candidats où deux adversaires s’affrontent dans le complexe mais cette fois, un seul doit en sortir.

As the Count of the small territory of the Nine Estates, you must build up the county into a powerful economic and cultural center. However, limited nearby resources force you to make difficult decissions. Can you earn the favor of the King?

Count of the Nine Estates is a 18-card reimplementation of Count of Nine.

Search your land for resources to build basic structures that will provide more resources. Use these structures and resources to build up your estates into a powerful economic force.

—description from the publisher


For Count of the Nine Estates, I did want to focus more on the experience. Looking back on Count of Nine, it seemed the player experience was a bit "on rails": once you pick a major structure to build, you are going to find the stuff you need to build that major structure. For Count of the Nine Estates, the player will have more freedom, and will have to make a couple strategic decisions during a match. So, I guess the "experience" I was going for CotNE is: a more strategic and "free" feeling compact, solo euro game.

—description from the designer


Count of the Nine Estates is a solo city building game played with 18 cards. Nine Estate cards are your targets to build: City Walls, a Cathedral, a Castle, and more. The other 9 cards make up the Structures deck which contains resources plus structures to be built. Play through the Structures deck in multiple rounds to build the structures needed that will enable you to build one or more of the Estates. The goal is to score the most victory points in the game, which is made up of 2 separate eras.

Victory points are awarded several ways:

Victory points marked on the Estate cards and some of the structure cards

+ 1 victory point for each structure built

+1 victory point for each duplicate structure built
-2 victory points for each round played

Take a stroll along the beach. Feel your toes digging into the sand. Discover a world of beautiful objects just waiting to be found. Whether you're picking up driftwood for your sculptures or sea glass for earrings, let Mother Nature be your muse as you follow the tides.

Tides is a game about collecting items from a beach. The goal is to score as many points as you can by making the most interesting sets of items. The tide is always changing; you never know what you’ll find on the beach!

Take cards from the row during LOW TIDE to collect items from the beach. During HIGH TIDE, flip the double-sided cards; the back side has scoring conditions. Score a set in either LOW or HIGH TIDE, by combining items you collected with a scoring card. Play until someone reaches 50 points. Finish the current low tide/high tide cycle. The player with the highest score wins!

It’s been a year since Leland Williams passed on. A year later, his family remembers his humor, warmth and – especially – his love of fishing. You play a member of his family going out on a solo fishing trip. With a specific sporting goal in mind, you’ll recall lessons and memories from Leland. If you piece together the lessons in just the right order, you’ll have a great day on the lake!

In Fishing Lessons you’ll play through a series of rounds representing the course of your day. At the start of the game you’ll pick a family member, each with their own unique goal. During each round you’ll recall a new Lesson, adding it to your list of steps that you’ll then run through in order. Lessons are used to move your character’s boat along the row of Lake cards or to flip Lake cards to hide or reveal the fish you need to complete your character’s goal. Meet the goal at the right time, based on your chosen difficulty level, to win the game!

When you signed on as storyboard editors, you never expected a mess like this. Panels all out of order, some missing entirely, and you're not even allowed to talk on the job? You're pretty sure that's not what "silent film" means. Somehow, you'll need to rework all this into a movie that makes sense. But with the animation budget quickly running out, there's little room for error...

The cameras are rolling on our newest blockbuster: Moving Pictures! This cooperative game for 2 players was designed by Chris Klimowski and is sure to be a big hit.

In Moving Pictures players take turns placing numbered scene cards from their hand into the shared Timeline row in hopes of getting all 6 cards in order. The catch? They can't speak or signal to each other, so they'll have to watch each other's play closely for clues. Each card also has an effect listed which can impact placement, swap cards around, or even allow players a rare opportunity to share information.

Getting it right once is a feat in itself but a full game of Moving Pictures is played over 3 Acts. The Timeline grows with each Act, making each round harder than the one before. Thankfully you also have access to 2 Deleted Scenes: if the round would end with scenes out of order, you can spend a Deleted Scene to hide one card. These Deleted Scenes don’t refresh, meaning that you only get 2 mistakes before the credits roll.

In the far reaches of space where humankind still dares not go, a sturdy ROVE — short for Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer — is often deployed. You are one such unit. Unfortunately your navigation systems malfunctioned and you were forced to make a crash-landing on a hostile alien planet. Armed only with your array of movement-enhancing modules you’ll have to roll, stretch, shimmy, and bounce your way to safety and complete the mission before your power supply runs out…permanently.

ROVE is a solo spatial puzzle game. In each game of ROVE, the player will face a series of mishaps that can only be solved by arranging the 6 module cards in a specific pattern. Moving a module requires Movement Points gained by discarding cards from hand for the listed amount. Players may gain additional Points if their current module layout matches the pattern shown on the discarded card.

Each module costs 1 Movement Point per activation and uses its own unique movement style, such as only moving diagonally or pushing other modules a single space. Modules also have powerful single-use abilities that can help get players out of a tight spot. Properly timing these abilities -- as well as effectively using the limited number of Movement cards -- will help the player complete ROVE’s mission successfully.

It was supposed to be an easy job, investigating this abandoned mansion. Suddenly a shot rings out in the darkness, the bullet shattering the plaster behind you. Turns out someone is here as well, and only one of you is leaving alive.

Revolver Noir is game for two players that puts you in the shoes of a private eye stuck in a dark mansion with an unknown hostile. Using a combination of detective work and calculated shots in the dark, your goal is to track down your enemy and put an end to them – before they do the same to you.


Finalist (top 3) of Button Shy's 18 Card Challenge: Design a game that doesn't use a table or surface.


Setup

Give one player all the John Doe cards, and the other all the Jane Doe cards.
Each player chooses one room in which to start, then places the rest of their cards behind it in their hand. The visible card is your current location.


The turn alternates between players. On your turn, you have Action Points, which you can spend to perform actions like moving, shooting, listening, setting traps, and use the room effect.

Use Room Effect
Most rooms in Revolver Noir have a unique effect, which can be used only while you are in that room. To trigger this effect, reveal your location, then follow the instructions on your room card.

Winning the Game
The objective is simple. To win, you’ll have to hit your opponent twice.

6 suspects is a game of memory and logical deduction. A crime has been committed. Two hidden evidence cards are assigned to each one of the six suspects. Players look at evidence cards, one after the other, trying to be the first to find the culprit.

On a player’s turn, they take one of the 12 face-down evidence cards, look at it, and then place it back. Once every player has played at least four times, any player can announce that they think they know the culprit. All other players take one last turn looking at an evidence card. Then, all players simultaneously show, with their hand, which one of the six suspects they think is the culprit.

All evidence cards are then revealed. First, the effect of the swap card is applied, if possible. Then the total evidence is added up for every suspect. The suspect with the highest total evidence is the culprit, and every player who voted for them scores one point.

FR:
6 suspects est un jeu de mémoire et de déduction logique. Un crime a été commis. Deux cartes de preuves cachées sont attribuées à chacun des six suspects. Les joueurs examinent les cartes de preuves, l'une après l'autre, en essayant d'être les premiers à trouver le coupable.

À son tour de jeu, un joueur prend l'une des 12 cartes de preuve face cachée, la regarde, puis la remet en place. Une fois que tous les joueurs ont joué au moins quatre fois, n'importe quel joueur peut annoncer qu'il pense connaître le coupable. Tous les autres joueurs regardent une dernière fois une carte de preuve. Ensuite, tous les joueurs montrent simultanément, avec leur main, lequel des six suspects ils pensent être le coupable.

Toutes les cartes de preuves sont alors révélées. L'effet de la carte d'échange est d'abord appliqué, si possible. Ensuite, le total des preuves est additionné pour chaque suspect. Le suspect ayant le plus grand nombre de preuves est déclaré coupable et chaque joueur ayant voté pour lui marque un point.

The last shall be first...
Make sure to be the last!!!

The game is separated into two phases.

Phase one is a trick-taking game with simultaneous card selection. First we check for ties. The tie numbers are gone and then the highest card wins. Cards are 1 to 6. Four times per card.

If after the first check we have a 1 card and a 6, then the 1 card wins the trick.

So now all keep the winning trick cards and we are ready for phase 2.

Phase 2 is Russian roulette, a game of chance. We have 6 cards (bullet cards) in the middle of the table, as a revolver. 5 empty chambers and one with a bullet.

On your turn (beginning with the player with the most cards from phase one):
You can draw a card (pull the trigger) or you can discard one card from that you collect before, to shuffle all open bullet cards back together and then draw one, you just spin the cylinder of the revolver, (no point to do it if you have to draw the first bullet)
or you can discard as many cards as alive players in the game to pass your turn to the next player.

When you draw we check if you die or live from the bullet card.
If you stay alive the game continues to the next player. If you die we shuffle the bullet cards and continue with the player with most cards.

Last man standing is the winner.

Sedlec Ossuary, 16th Century AD.

The Black Plague and Hussite Wars have overcrowded the graveyard. Help the Bone Collector, a half-blind monk, by exhuming graves and arranging the skulls inside the crypt.

You are novice monks, competing to create the best arrangement of skulls.

Dig up graves from the graveyard to reveal cards, take cards into your hand to collect skulls, and arrange the cards from your hand into a stack. Whoever better honors the deceased’s last wishes will score more points.

The Bone Collector will then judge each player’s completed stack and declare one as the most exceptional.

—description from the publisher


Released in the June 2020 Board Game of the Month Club $20+ package.

Finalist (top 3) of Button Shy's 18 Card Challenge: Design a game about a real life location.

With your team's careful guidance, the city and the countryside are expanding and converging. With everything growing at a breakneck pace, you are now tasked with managing the entire region!

A 6-card combo pack that allows you to combine Sprawlopolis and Agropolis.

Unlike the original rules for both standalone games, this variant eliminates the use of card-passing. Rather, players shuffle each game deck individually, flipping a single card from each to reveal 2 scoring conditions. Then, a 3rd card is drawn at random from the 6-card combo pack to reveal the 3rd and final scoring condition. A separate card from this pack is used as the starting tile, displaying 2 "blocks" from those terrains included in each game respectively.

On a player's turn, they draw 1 card from each game deck and must choose 1 to play and 1 to discard. In this way, both game decks with run out at the same rate. End game occurs after the last 2 cards are drawn and played/discarded.

Players score for the largest 2 block groups from each game, lose points for individual roads, and score/lose points according to the 3 scoring condition cards.

—description from the publisher

In the first course, it was definitely in the soup. After that, it's not as clear. Perhaps in the Béarnaise sauce?

Regardles, two things are abundantly clear: someone is poisoning the guests at this party, and the wine that is being poured may be the last you ever taste.

In Vino Morte is a tiny little bluffing/deduction game.

In the game, the dealer will choose and distribute wine/poison cards and each player has an opportunity to keep theirs and drink it, or swap with another player. It's quick, fun and sneaky and works with a large group.

A collection of old fairy tales has been torn apart. Pages from different stories are all mixed together and strewn about. Can you find the connections between the scattered characters to put their stories back together? Reunite the characters in clever ways to win the game!

Wonder Tales is a quick tile-laying set-collection micro-game for two players.

Each of the 17 game cards is double sided, with the same fairy tale character on both sides, but with different colored highlights.

Players take turns placing cards on a shared tableau with their color showing. Once the tableau is full, scores are tallied depending on which combinations of characters and/or colors lie adjacent to each player's cards.

A game consists of 2-3 rounds, with the tableau shape changing each round.

A Solo Game by Scott Almes.

You own the only inn within a hundred miles: the questionable prestigious Ugly Gryphon Inn. Your patrons are rowdy and rude, but they are the only ones around. In order to keep the debt collectors at bay, but to do so you must manage some painfully particular, peculiar patrons.

In The Ugly Gryphon Inn, you’ll be tasked with managing your patrons’ various needs to ensure they all get a good night’s rest. Each turn, you’ll send one drowsy patron up to their room, then check to make sure all your patrons are sleeping soundly. If something’s irking them, they might raise a fuss, so keep an eye on what they need as you go. Afterwards, you’ll usher in more guests and keep an eye on the bar to make sure there’s no trouble. There’s never a moment to rest in The Ugly Gryphon Inn!

After you've run out of cards in the deck, then count how many patrons you have in the inn. Do not include patrons in the bar. If you have 7 or more patrons in the inn - you’ve won! If you have less than 7, then you have lost.

Government officials are plotting to undermine democracy! They need to exchange documents and money in secret, but a pair of investigative journalists are getting suspicious of their activities. Will the intrepid reporters be able to expose the corruption before it's too late?

Two corrupt politicians need to exchange messages and dirty money while two investigators try to intercept their actions and publish them in the international media.

Winner of Button Shy's 18 identical cards challenge, Interceptor is a game for 4 people in pairs that will sit facing your partner.

The cards have two sides: money or message. Players must place one of their 5 cards with one side forward and make a pre-arranged secret code for their partner to place the same side forward. Corruptors should try to avoid investigations by placing the opposite side that their opponents put, while investigators want to put on the same side as their opponents.

After 4 cards on the table, they are all revealed and losers lose their cards. Whoever runs out of cards loses the game.

But there is one more thing. If you discover your opponent's code, you can say "Interceptor!" and make a guess. If you're wrong, you lose a card, if you get it right, you win the game instantly.

It is a fast and very fun game, great for playing several games in a row.

—description from the designer


Winner of Button Shy's 18 Card Challenge: Design a game with 18 identical cards.

You are an interplanetary trader, flying a second-hand ship, trying to make some cash. A wealthy merchant offered you a lucrative deal. Prove yourself by getting some rare crystals and she'll put you in charge of her trading fleet — one of the biggest in the quadrant. You'll need to get them before your enemy gets them first. What are you waiting for? Get shipping!

SpaceShipped — A solo space trading game of buying and selling resources, upgrading your ship, crew, and equipment, dealing with pirates, and making deals. A card game with over 30 random events, 4 types of ship, 4 sets of crew members, and 8 different pieces of equipment to install, all using only 18 cards packed neatly in a little wallet.

Your goal: Make enough money through your buying and selling of resources to be able to afford two very expensive exotic stones (three, if you're really daring). At the same time you're trying to do it, pirates are working hard to collect them as well. If they get to them first, or if your ship takes enough damage, you lose.

As if the pressure from the pirates wasn't enough, on each turn, you'll pilot your ship to different planets, experiencing random encounters, solar winds, and violent attacks. Spend too much time repairing your ship and the pirates will steal the crystals first, but don't repair your ship enough and it will likely be destroyed by these attacks. Hire the right crew, buy the right ship, fit your ship with the right equipment, and you just might make it out of the galaxy alive.


Released in the July 2019 Board Game of the Month Club $20+ package.

Avignon is a quick influence manipulation card game in which the two players are rival candidates for Pope in the 14th century. Players gain influence by petitioning members of the medieval Church, such as Cardinals, Nobles, and Knights, and using the characters' unique powers to pull the character cards over to their side of the table (their congregation), or force an opponent to push cards towards them. The first player to get three characters into their congregation wins.

On this forgotten island in a tiny corner of the ocean the animals are hungry! Your goal is to influence the wildlife - and arrange their meals - so there is only one animal left!

Jackhammers chattering, trucks beeping, engines roaring, the sounds of construction are everywhere. Sprawlopolis is growing and YOU are in charge of it all. The last team of planners couldn't cut it, so the city turned to your team, the best of the best. If anyone can turn this tiny town into a thriving civic center it's you.

Sedlec Ossuary, 16th Century AD.

The Black Plague and Hussite Wars have overcrowded the graveyard. Help the Bone Collector, a half-blind monk, by exhuming graves and arranging the skulls inside the crypt.

You are novice monks, competing to create the best arrangement of skulls.